O P I N I O N

THE SOAPBOX

Stand up. Speak up. It’s your turn.

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Rep. Brian Labrie argues in a recent op/ed that the so-called “Public Employee Choice Act” is about freedom. But true workplace freedom has never meant forcing workers to negotiate alone against the power and resources of the state. In New Hampshire — a place where the middle class was built through solidarity, fairness, and collective voice — this proposal would undermine the very system that has delivered stability and economic mobility for tens of thousands of families.

For decades, unions have done exactly what he claims the bill would solve: they helped New Hampshire attract and retain skilled public employees by setting transparent standards for pay, training, safety, and benefits. They didn’t weaken our workforce — they professionalized it. They didn’t suppress excellence — they rewarded it. And they didn’t drive people away — they kept them here, raising families and buying homes.

Unions Are Why Public Employees Stay — Not Why They Leave

The claim that public sector contracts “lock in rigid pay” ignores the reality: collective bargaining gives workers the leverage to negotiate competitive salaries, workload protections, and training investments that allow them to stay in their professions rather than abandon them for private contractors.

If New Hampshire is struggling to hire snowplow drivers, the cause isn’t unions — it’s the Legislature’s chronic underfunding of public works payrolls. Private contractors pay more because municipalities are prevented from offering competitive wages. That’s not a union problem; that’s a budgeting problem.

Individual Bargaining is Not Freedom — It’s Fragmentation

The bill’s core premise — that public employees who are not union members should negotiate their own custom contracts — would splinter our workforce into thousands of individual deals, creating inequality, inconsistency, and instability.

Imagine 200 employees in a single workplace each with individualized pay scales, grievance processes, insurance packages, and work rules. Municipalities would face enormous administrative burdens and wide exposure to legal challenges. Taxpayers would pay more — not less.

This bill isn’t about freedom. It’s about weakening collective strength so that individuals have less bargaining power.

The “Free Rider” Framing is Misleading

Unions represent all workers because the law requires them to — and because equal protections create safe, stable workplaces. The so-called “free rider problem” isn’t solved by eliminating representation; it’s solved by allowing unions to negotiate fair-share agreements, a standard practice in much of the country.

What this bill really offers is not choice, but a pathway to erode unions by carving bargaining units into isolated individuals with no ability to stand together.

The Real Result: Lower Pay, Weaker Protections, and a Smaller Middle Class

States that adopt individual bargaining systems don’t retain top employees — they lose them. Wages fall. Turnover rises. Public sector professionalism collapses. And middle-class families pay the price.

New Hampshire’s economic success story was not written by cutting workers loose to negotiate alone. It was written by firefighters, teachers, highway workers, social workers, police officers, and state employees joining together to advocate for competitive pay, safe working conditions, and fair treatment.

That collective voice built the modern New Hampshire middle class — and still sustains it today.

Freedom Is a Community Value — Not a Solo Act

Rep. Labrie invokes “Live Free or Die” as a slogan for individualized bargaining. But in New Hampshire, freedom has always been tied to community responsibility — the recognition that we are stronger together than we are alone.

Unions don’t silence workers. They amplify them.
Unions don’t restrict choice. They protect it.
And unions don’t hold back top performers. They ensure that everyone — from the snowplow driver to the special-education teacher to the state trooper — has the dignity of a fair, predictable, and professional workplace.

The “Public Employee Choice Act” does not modernize New Hampshire’s labor system. It dismantles it. And in doing so, it threatens to undo decades of progress that helped New Hampshire build one of the strongest, most stable middle classes in the country.

The New Hampshire way is not every worker for themselves.
It is every worker with a voice.
And that voice — strong, collective, and united — is worth protecting.

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